South Bethlehem

One of my columns last week included an email from a former south Bethlehem resident who felt I disparaged his neighborhood and his neighbors in a column this spring.

The column he was unhappy about was inspired by my enthusiasm over the changes I'm seeing on the South Side. The area has become increasingly vibrant, and I contrasted this with the dingy south Bethlehem I remember from the days as a Lehigh University college student in the 1970s. He disputed that characterization.

As it happens, this former resident wasn't the only one who was unhappy with that column. I also was blasted by Alan Jennings, executive director of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley.

He felt I should have acknowledged the role CACLV played in helping to spur the South Side's revival. I suspect he zeroed in on this paragraph:

"I don't know when the transition began exactly. ArtsQuest? Cleo's and other merchants who took an early chance on the South Side? BethWorks? First Fridays? The Greenway? The Sands? The partnerships with Northampton Community College and Lehigh University? All of these helped promote the idea that there just might be life after Bethlehem Steel there after all."

Anyway, here's what Jennings had to say:

I saw your piece today on south Bethlehem and was stunned to find that you completely overlooked our role.

We operate Southside Vision 2014, a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization effort in place since 2002. Leveraging between $100,000 to $250,000 in corporate contributions per year into more than $12 million in enhancements, here are just a few examples of our role:

* promoting a minority business district, branding it “Four Blocks International” that included street banners, opening new businesses, creating a pocket park and doing about a dozen commercial facade improvements.

* helping more than 60 new businesses get started.

* installing more than 90 decorative, acorn-style streetlights on East Fourth Street.

* providing $200,000 in private funds to create the skate plaza.

* creating a splash park in Yosko Park.

* making emergency repairs to close to 20 homes, improving another 20+ residential facades and, through our community land trust, doing major rehab on three homes.

* making improvements to the ball fields at Saucon Park.

* providing funding to the city to employ a youth development coordinator who oversaw dances, SAT prep classes, sports tournaments and more.

* providing funding to ArtsQuest to help create their glass-blowing shop.

* developing a streetscaping plan for the so-called Eastern Gateway.

We also redeveloped a blighted, 100-year-old garment factory, turning it into our offices and 10 affordable apartments for low-income families.

We are really proud of what we have accomplished, and I am just totally disappointed that you ignored it.

My defense, I guess, is that I never intended to offer a comprehensive list of all the South Side's improvements and the people and organizations who made those possible. My perspective was more the Goodyear Blimp than street level.

Still, I recognize that a lot of imagination and hard work went into transforming this part of the city, and I'm happy to use this space today to recognize CACLV's important role.

Meanwhile, I intend to stick to nasty columns from now on. The nice ones get me in too much trouble.